The AFL will scrap Sunday night matches after the new timeslot drew a string of small crowds in 2014.

The last of the four Sunday night games drew just 40,396 fans to a clash between traditional rivals Collingwood and Carlton at the weekend, drawing the ire of the Magpies president, Eddie McGuire.

"This is one of the greatest [examples of] vandalising of a key event that I've seen in years," McGuire told the AFL website. "I'm sure I won't get a letter of an apology or anything else and I don't care. All I want is the cheque. I'm worried it's probably cost a couple of hundred thousand. There's equalisation money gone out of the door. It's exactly the way we told them 12 months ago it would be."

It was the lowest attendance figure for a match between the two sides at the MCG since 1921.

The AFL chief executive, Gillon McLachlan said that, while Thursday night games had proved popular in 2014, the same could not be said for Sunday nights.

"We will always look at new initiatives – just as we have done in the past with Friday night and Saturday twilight football – but match-day attendance is a core ingredient of the success of our game and, in this instance, we acknowledge the very strong feedback from our fans and our clubs in relation to Sunday night football, particularly in Victoria," he said in a statement.

"While the two national Seven/Fox Footy Sunday night matches [rounds three and 15] have drawn comparable television viewers to a Friday night game, the impact on attendance does not justify moving matches into this new timeslot and the AFL remains committed to attendances at the ground as critical to our game."